Netflix announced last Monday that they will not be splitting their streaming and DVD rental services as they had originally planned.
“It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult,” said Reed Hastings in the blog post. “So we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.”
The DVD rental service was supposed to operate as a separate entity under the name Qwikster. However, Qwikster never got a chance to see the light of day.
The September announcement of the split caused an immediate backlash from customers, who flooded the Netflix corporate blog expressing their resentment.
“I think Netflix’s initial decision was really the company pushing the limits and seeing how much they could take advantage of customers,” said senior broadcast journalism major Meg Corzine. “By customers fighting back against the split fees, I think Netflix probably realized clients are more aware than they thought.”
The company was already on thin ice with its customers after a 60 percent price increase in July for those who wanted both DVD rental and streaming services. Over 1 million customers reportedly discontinued their subscriptions.
“I think that a large corporation like Netflix should always act on behalf of the people for whom they provide services,” said Tina Szarko, a junior majoring in general biology. “A majority of their decisions should stem from the overwhelming opinion of their customers.”
Hastings said that the price increases were necessary, but apologized for the way the company has handled its customer relations. He says that Netflix is now done with price changes. By splitting up DVDs and streaming, Netflix had intended to begin moving away from physical media to digital. However, Netflix customers have made it clear that this is a premature transition.
Streaming-only service is available to customers for $8 per month. The DVD rental service ranges from $5 per month to rent one DVD at a time with a maximum of two mailings per month to $44 per month for 8 DVDs at a time with unlimited mailings, according to a Q&A at Huffingtonpost.com.
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